


"She's my ray of moonlight"

by Artfulstar



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Aaravos is a scheming bitch, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - The Princess and the Frog (2009) Fusion, Arranged Marriage, Disney, Disney Movies, F/M, I think I can say any quote from it by memory at this point, In 3 days I watched the original movie 7 times to write this, Multi, Original Character(s), Pining, Sarai is alive though, Slow Burn, There's a death from the original movie, and i love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21988960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artfulstar/pseuds/Artfulstar
Summary: A Rayllum AU using the 2009 Disney movie Princess and the Frog as a baseRayla is a hard-working woman who works at her dads' restaurant. 19 years old and saving every cent to open her own restaurant she dreamed with her biological parents since a little girlCallum is the step-prince of the royal family of the distant kingdom of Katolis who only wants to be an artist, but when he turns 18 he knows he'll have to marry Claudia, the daughter of his step-dad's oldest friendWhen he wishes he wouldn't need to marry someone out of responsibility, a rather mystical event transforms him to a frog and he meets a princess who can call out the spellTurns out this princess wasn't who he thought would be
Relationships: Aaravos & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Claudia (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Claudia (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Ezran (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Harrow/Sarai (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I deeply recommend you to read [my general thoughts](https://artfulstar.tumblr.com/post/189900237040/princess-and-the-frog-rayllum-au/) on the AU so you can have a better understanding of the universe  
> Anyway this is my first fanfic ever on this site so any feedback is appreciated! Thank you for getting interested on my AU!

The moon sparkles high on the sky. Silvergroove's community is always quiet, but on this night, a big party is happening in a rather cozy house. Downstairs while everyone laughs commemorate, upstairs in a small bedroom, a little girl with white hair is on her bed, while a tall woman is sitting on her bed with a book on her hands 

“Just at that moment, the ugly little frog looked up with his sad, round eyes and pleaded: 'oh, please dear princess! Only a kiss from you can break this terrible spell that was inflicted on me by a wicked witch!” The woman read the words out loud while the little girl looked up to her with big round eyes and clutching the bedsheets, anxiously awaiting for the next part of the tale “And the beautiful princess was so moved by his desperate plea, that she stooped down, picked up the slippery creature, leaned him forward raised him to his lips” the little girl smile started to falter but she leaned her head towards her mother “and kissed the frog!” she said as she turned the page, showing a drawing of a woman with a beautiful purple and green gown with the frog on her lips. As soon as the little girl processed the words her smile turned to a disgusted frown and she gagged slightly “Then, the frog was transformed into a handsome prince! They were married and lived happily ever after. The end.” She said as she closed the book on her lap. The woman stood up to out the book on the shelf as the little girl crossed her arms over her little chest and said 

“There is no way, in this whole wide world I would ever, ever and I mean, ever kiss a frog!” she gagged slightly at the thought again 

“Is that so?” a tall man appeared at the doorframe. Swiftly he took the little girl and hugged her “well, just you know, I was a frog once and your mother was the princess who turned me back! Now give your frog-dad a kiss, Ray!” he tried to kiss his daughter's cheek but she fleed of his grasp and she laughed contiguously 

“I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!” She says laughing before jumping back on her bed and hiding under the sheets. 

“Stop tormenting her, Lain!” The woman says as she puts a hand on her husband's shoulder. After a few seconds Rayla gets out of the sheets and looks up to the sky on her window just by the side of her bed and looks up to the only star in the sky, the evening star, who usually is hidden by the clouds every night, but today with the sky clear, it’s there and it’s shining like no other star 

“Mum! Dad! Uncle Ethari says that if you make a wish to the evening star, it's sure to happen!” she puts her chin on the window frame adorably 

“Well, you wish on that star, sweetheart” Tiadrin says while sitting on Rayla's left side and looking out on the sky too 

“Yes, you wish and dream with all your little heart. But remember, Ray, that star can only take you part of the way! She can get you to places, show where you should work, but you do the other part, one day you, your mum and I are going to open that restaurant we always dreamed and we’ll do it with that star and hard work.” Lain said as Tiadrin came beside him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Promise us one thing.” He said as he put his hand on Rayla’s “That you’ll never, ever lose sight of what’s really important. Okay?” the little girl smiled up and nodded. Both of them hugged the girl. 

“See you in the morning, Ray.” Tiadrin said as she planted a kiss on Rayla’s forehead and tucked her under the covers. 

As soon as the door closed behind her parents, Rayla jumped out of bed and looked out at the sky again. With a big smile on her face, she closed her eyes and crossed her fingers 

“Please, please, please!” the girl looked at her side and saw a dark green frog at her side. After some moments of staring at each other, the frog croaked, startling the girl and making her run out of the room to her parents' room 

* * *

Groaning on her bed, Rayla’s clock sounded at its cue and she got up, still with her bed head. 

Going up to the usual cloak she used every day, she got some coins out of the pocket and opened a drawer on her nightstand and shove it on a can full of other coins 

“Well, miss Rayla, rough night for tips but every little one of these counts” straightening her bed head on the small mirror above it, she looked at her parents' picture on the side and smiled warmly “don’t worry, mum, dad, we’ll be there soon.” Opening her closet, she groaned loudly as she grabbed a green and black dress and her coat “Good morning, Xadia's” 

Getting on her bus to the center, Rayla arrives at Xadia’s restaurant on the spot, with Ethari already working on the meals and the woman serving them, lighting up everyone’s faces. 

“Order up Ray!” Ethari calls from the kitchen while ringing the bell “Another coffee here, Ray!” a middle-aged man says putting his cup up as Rayla goes by and with a smile on her face, she fills it up 

“Hey Rayla!” a woman of the same age as the girl calls her 

“Morning Nyx!” she says putting her tray down and the people on the table “Hey y'all!” 

“We all going out dancing tonight. Care to join us?” she says fluttering her bi-colored eyes to her on a plea. The table started to cheer her 

“You know I got two left feet! Besides I’m working all night today again. Gotta save for the...” she’s interrupted by Nyx 

“Yeah, yeah, 'gotta save for the restaurant'. Girl, all you ever do is work!” she says putting her hand under her chin and looking in disapproval at her. At the sound of the kitchen's bell again, Rayla waves her hand on their direction 

“Maybe next time.” She can vaguely hear the people on the table complaining about it and she tries to shove it down and focus on her tasks. At the look of disappointment on his daughter's face, Runaan speaks up from inside the kitchen 

“Ray... You talking about the restaurant again?” She swears she sees Ethari whispering to Runaan to stop but it seems like he doesn’t listen, or rather he doesn’t want to. 

“Runaan, the eggs please” Rayla speaks with all the serenity she’s able to find. As he passes to the girl, he starts again 

“Rayla, I know you work hard but if we’re being honest, you hardly will ever pay for it!” 

“Runaan!” Ethari exclaims 

“I’m getting close.” She says as she puts all the plates on her tray 

“Oh yeah? How close?” at the question she stops and blushes of embarrassment 

“Uh... Are the Moonberry surprises ready?” Runaan groans 

“Rayla, I want you to look clearly at the situation, you’re gonna start overworking yourself for a dream! You should be happy working with us. We are fami- OW!” She guesses in her mind that Ethari stepped on his foot to stop the talking. 

Rayla turns to the door as the bell over the door announces another customer. Is the powerful politician Lord Viren. Both of them were never fond of each other, but since this is his daughter’s favorite dinner, he treats everyone there politely as he can and Rayla tries to do the same 

“Good morning, Lord Viren.” She says as she sees him 

“Um... Good morning Rayla.” He takes a chair and sits down. Just behind him, his daughter Claudia bursts through the door and takes Rayla in a hug. 

“Ray! Come on! I’ve got something exciting for ya!” Grabbing her hand, she pulls Rayla to the table. Even though Claudia and Rayla aren’t the best of friends, Claudia is a happy-go-lucky woman who seems to think everyone who is rather kind to her as a friend. 

Forcing Rayla to sit down, she suddenly is aware that her father is right there. 

“Oh... Hmm... Dad can I tell Ray about the... thing?” the man looks at his daughter and sighs 

“Sure... The press will know soon too.” The woman beams at him 

“Okay! Have you heard the news about the royal family of Katolis coming here?” Rayla ponders and she vaguely remembers something about it on the news 

“Uh... Yeah... Kinda? What about it?” 

“Well, dad is actually really close with their King! And I’m a good friend with their son, Prince Callum! We’re having a costume party on our house tonight to announce...” she looks at her father and he rolls his eyes “...that I’m getting married to Callum.” She says with a whisper. Rayla's eyes widen. “It’s an arranged marriage since both of our families are really close. And Rayla I would be really glad if you and your dads could maybe go to our party. Your food is amazing. We will pay for everything!” Rayla looked to her dads, who were overhearing the conversation and they both nodded” 

“Sure, we-we’ll do it.” 

“That’s great! How much do you guys need?” Rayla opened her mouth to try to say something but Claudia was already signing a check and giving to her “does this cover everything?” Rayla’s eyes widened as she clutched the check. There was enough money to cover for all the food and the rest could go to her savings. 

“You kidding? This is more than enough! I did it! I’m going to open my restaurant!” 

Amid her fluttering, she didn’t saw Runaan paying up a 20 dollar bill to his husband 

* * *

“I just don’t understand why I have to marry Claudia!” Callum says as the family arrive at Lord Viren’s house 

“I don’t see the problem, Callum. Didn’t you have a crush on her or something?” his little bro Ezran asks him 

“I did, but I was fourteen! I’m eighteen now! I only see Claudia as my friend!” 

“Callum, I understand your concerns, but listen...” Harrow tries to intervene but the prince backs off 

“No, listen to me! Everyone on this world marries for love, the two times my mom married was for love. You married her for love! Why do I need to do this?” 

“You see, Viren is my friend since I was a prince so-“ 

“Oh, so this is something between you two? That’s great, why don’t you involve two different people who have nothing to do? I’m not even your son-“ 

“Callum!” Sarai exclaims “apologize this instant!” she narrows her eyes at the young man 

“I'm sorry... I just... need some time alone.” He says and bursts through the door and goes to the gazebo on the big garden of the house. He doesn’t see the worried faces his family makes. 

The gazebo, where he thought it would be quiet, turns out to be quite loud due to the preparations of the costume party. Callum groans as he clutches his sketchbook in his hands 

“For once, I just wish I didn’t have to endure this. I would give everything to have peace. I would give anything to be able to actually marry someone I like, to be an artist, to be...” he suddenly feels a presence behind him. Turning he faces Lord Viren’s right-hand man, Aaravos. The man bows to the prince with a grace he'd never seen 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Prince Callum.” He says when he faces the prince 

“There’s no need for the formalities...” he trails off and suddenly notices he’s fidgeting with some kind of cube on his hand. The curiosity gets the best of him, like always. “what is that, if I may ask?” The man laughs shortly and hands the cube to the prince. 

“It’s a cube I use in my work.” Callum then notices that all the sides have different runes, he swears are familiar to him 

“Is it stress relief or something? It must be tiring to be the right-hand man of a politician.” He hands back the cube to the man 

“Well, it’s for my other job.” He says with a sly face “and if I do say so myself, it’s a job that may help your 'problem'.” 

“My 'problem'?” putting his arm across his shoulders, Aaravos leads the way into the backdoor, purposely avoiding the royal family on the front door 

“Could help but overhear the argument you just had with your family and your wishes! They’re fascinating!” 

“Uh... Well! Thank you! I guess?” 

“Prince Callum, have you ever heard about the legendary 6 primal sources?” 

“Yes! As a kid I had this book about it, even though many people considered fictional, I always thought that there was something real about it!” Aaravos notices a sparkle on his eyes and his Cheshire grin gets bigger 

“And you’re right, prince! You’re a very clever man, you know that?” He opens a rather secluded door and the prince, flattered by the words, steps inside while curiously looking around. The room was dark, lit only by some candles on random spots and had some rather ominous artifacts, mirrors of various sizes, a blade who was shining as it had just been forged and a jar with some big sea-green moths. “Take a seat, prince” before Callum could think, a chair was pushed and he fell on to it. Setting the cube down on the table in front of him, Aaravos took a book out of a shelf and sat on his front. “The six primal sources are Sun, Moon, Sky, Earth, Ocean, and Stars. Even though they disappeared centuries ago, there are some vestiges out there. Like this cube.” Then it finally clicked what those runes were. They were the symbols of each primal source.” This little cube holds the power of each primal source inside it. And I can use it.” At the weird statements, Callum raises one of his brows at the man who continues “You may know me for my job as Lord Viren’s right-hand man, but others know me as 'Archmage Aaravos'.” He leans on his chair and Callum swears he sees his skin glint like stars for maybe a second, but as he blinks, that’s nowhere to be seen. “With the power of the sources, I can use it to bring your happiness as you wanted. Fortune in your future, your family approval of your decisions.” 

Callum was shocked. It was rather difficult to believe all the jazz that the man was talking about, he wanted to believe but he couldn’t, not this eas-

“I believe you may be doubting me. I take no offense of that. After is rather unexpected. Would you like a demonstration?” grabbing the cube and facing the sky rune, the man smiles and with the touch of his fingers in the air, a rune is draw “Aspiro” he whispers. Even though they were in a closed room, with no wind in sight, Callum fells a breeze blowing in his direction. The prince's jaw is hanging. “I see I convinced you, then” his characteristic Cheshire grin finds a way into his face. 

“Please, you need to help me!” Callum clasps his hands together in plea “I just want to be free of the chains of these responsibilities! Please!” 

“I see...” a serious face is put on and he gets up to face the young man. “I’ll free you of what you want. We’ll both get what we want. Do we have a deal?” he extends his left hand, the other holding his cube, facing the Moon rune, which is glowing brightly. “Shake my hand.” The man senses the hesitation on the prince's end and puts on his best charismatic smile “c’mon your majesty, won’t you shake a poor sinner's hand?” the boy hesitantly grabs it and Callum fells his skin burn. “Yes!” 

Callum could argue that the events could be playing a trick on his head, but he can’t deny that when he shook Aaravos' hand, he saw his skin change to violet and it started to sparkle once again. His movements are suddenly restrained. Two big purple caterpillars trap him to the chair and he struggles in reflex. The entire cube starts to glow in synch and it opens, revealing an item with a blinding light which makes it impossible to say what object it is. With a rapid reflex, Aaravos gets a small needle on his table and Pierce’s Callum's skin, his blood falling on the object inside. The cube closes and Callum’s eyes widen as, on the spot where he was bleeding, a bright green light starts to dance around his fingers until he is temporarily blinded by it and immediately fainting after 

The last thing the prince can remember is hearing Aaravos' dark laugh. The rest is lost 

* * *

“You sure you can handle the things on your own, Ray?” Ethari asks. Both him and Runaan were dressed matching as elves, Runaan wearing a more fighting costume, while Ethari wore a more casual attire. Both of them had painted their skins to create a more detailed costume. Runaan had two horizontal lines draw in the center of his face and some more circles symbols at his arms. Ethari had more vertical lines draw to his jaw like veins and circles on his arms 

“Sure thing! Go have fun! Besides, I’m waiting for the real estate agents here so I can sign those papers, y'know?” The woman was not much different from her dads. She was also dressed up as an elf, matching the colors with Runaan's. She also had her face painted, more simple patterns, just two halves of a crescent moon mirrored on both sides descending from her eyes to her cheeks. 

Runaan and Ethari nodded and headed to the dance floor, leaving Rayla at the buffet table with all the food of the party, including the food they made it. They had to close the dinner earlier to prepare everything, but in the end, they were able to perform amazingly. Even though Rayla was rather distracted after talking to the real estate agents of the building she was aiming over the last 5 years and agree to sign the papers during the party. 

Suddenly she felt something chewing at her boot. She looked down and saw a rather big toad yellow with sea-green spots. Looking down she took the animal o her arms and it groaned at her. 

“Well ain’t ya a grumpy one?” she laughed 

“Bait!” she saw running into her a direction a boy dressed in a prince costume. He couldn’t be older than 14, he had big fluffy brown hair, tiny freckles dusting his dark skin and big turquoise eyes. “I’m sorry ma'am. I hope he didn’t cause much trouble.” He says as Rayla hands him the toad 

“No problems, just some drooled boots, but I guess he can’t help that” she laughed at the situation and the boy followed her with a laugh too. Their friendly chat was interrupted as Claudia’s older brother, Soren dressed up as a medieval guard approached the boy. 

“Prince Ezran, your family is looking for you.” The boy took a deep breath and skipped with the toad in his arms to a small group on the sidelines, two tall women who seemed to be sisters, one dressed as a medieval guard and the other with a red and golden royal attire. The man on the group had dark skin and afro locks and was wearing a matching attire to the latter. Both of them wearing crows who seemed to be too shiny to be fake. Rayla’s train of thought was interrupted as Soren grabbed a jelly tart from the buffet. He must have noticed the face Rayla was making and asked her “You do know that they are real royal family, right?” she snapped her head into the man's direction, but he was running to the dance floor before she could answer. 

“Ray!” Claudia’s voice came and she hugged the girl “You look amazing!” she says stepping back and taking in the elven attire of the girl. Claudia was wearing a black dress and had her long hair in a bun with a flower hairpin. 

“Ah, thank you! You look cool too...” she trailed off and snapped her attention to the royal family once again. Following her eyes, Claudia took her hand. 

“C'mon, you need to meet everyone, let’s start with the Royal family!” she tried to pull Rayla from the table, but her anxiety attacked and locked her feet on the spot. 

“WHAT?!” She exclaimed “Nononono! I’ll only embarrass myself! A-And my dads want me to take care of the buffet!” 

Before Claudia could argue back and probably win on whatever argument Rayla would be able to muster, Lord Viren headed in their direction 

“Claudia, could you please go look for Prince Callum? He’s been missing the whole afternoon. Tell him his family is really worried.” Claudia stopped pulling Rayla but didn’t let go of her hand. She nodded and started to go up the stairs. 

“C’mon the first person I want you to meet is Callum! He’s great!” 

“Claudia I’m not sure about this...” even though Claudia let go of her hand midway of the flight of stairs, Rayla was still trailing behind the other woman. They checked every room they could find and that was remotely accessible to the guests, Lord Viren’s and Aaravos's offices being left alone. 

Callum was in none of them. 

Turning back to the foyer, Claudia was in the midst of a panic attack. 

“The prince of Katolis is missing in my own house! How could I let this happen! I should have stayed with him the entire afternoon! This is all your fault, Claudia. Now dad is going to be really mad at you, he’ll declare Soren as his favorite and we’ll have a war with Katolis! That’s great! Just great!” she hid her face into her forearms as he slumped them into the white fence of the balcony near the flight of stairs 

“Calm down Claudia, it’s not your fault at all.” Rayla put a hand on Claudia's shoulder and could vaguely hear some whimpering. “D-Don’t cry...” but Rayla quickly understood that she wasn’t crying but rather talking to herself. Suddenly her head shot up and she stared into the dark sky, the only star there being the evening star, who minutes ago was clouded. 

“Oh good! Please, please, please! Help me!” She pleaded loudly to the cosmos. 

“Claudia, you can’t just wish on a star and expect things t-“ suddenly all the lights in the room dimmed and a new voice she never heard sounded through the speakers. Rayla looked down at the center of the ballroom and saw who was speaking. It was a tall redheaded man with freckles on his face 

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” The man was near the royal family. On Rayla’s side, she saw Claudia’s face go agape. “I present to you, his Royal Highness, Prince Callum of Katolis!” 

A spotlight flashed on the spot where a young man with maybe Rayla’s age, maybe a bit younger stood. He had brown hair and it was swept in an almost ugly way, but what did she know about royal hairstyles? He was wearing a royal attire matching his family’s. In reflex, Rayla looked up to the evening star, who was once being hidden by the clouds as Claudia gasped loudly and with all the grace she could muster for someone who was just having a panic attack, she descended the stairs, leaving Rayla alone. She quickly joined Callum and she directed him to where his family was. 

Shortly after, a piece of slow music was sounding and all the couples at the party went to the dance floor. Ethari and Runaan, the King and Queen of Katolis, the “sister” of the queen to got a dance with a tall woman with dark skin and golden armor. Rayla also saw Callum and Claudia laughing at the sidelines and him taking her to dance on the floor. 

Swayed by the rhythm of the music, Rayla didn’t notice as two men approached her. 

“Good Evening, Rayla.” One of them said. Rayla quickly recognized them as the real estate agents she talked over the last years about the building she wanted to buy. “Marvelous party.” 

“Good evening, Mr. Guill and Mr. Guill.” The two brothers looked at the buffet table and grabbed a slice of a Moonberry surprise. 

“The famous Moonberry surprises I presume?” the younger of the two took a bite and smiled delightedly 

“It’s goin' to be the house specialty after I sign those papers ya brought!” she smiles dearly. Her dream was almost there. While his younger brother ate the food like a horse, the older one took the initiative 

“Yes... About that...” he trailed off before eating his slice 

“You were outbid!” the younger one says. Rayla’s smile falters turning into a confused frown 

“What?” 

“Another person came in and offered the full amount in cash.” the older brother explained, “Unless you can top his offer by Wednesday...” Rayla felt her face fall 

“You can kiss that place goodbye!” the younger one finished the job of explaining the delicate situation. Rayla suddenly didn’t feel sadness or disappointment but anger. She put herself in front of them before they could getaway. 

“You know how long it took me to save that money?!” she tried to argue, stomping her feet and clutching her fists 

“Exactly! Which is why a little woman of your background” the older brother put his hands on her shoulders to try to calm her down, which it didn’t “would have her hands full trying to run a business like that.” He pushed her near the buffet table and tried to walk away “No, you’re better off with your dads' dinner.” He took some more steps away from her 

“Now, wait a minute!” She tried to argue 

“Love the desserts though.” The younger one lamented cutting Rayla’s speech, which she quickly regained as they were walking away 

“Now hold on! You come back here!” she tried to go after them but she slipped on some crumbles of the Moonberry surprise they were eating and fell back on the table, consequently spilling all the contents over her costume. She yelled and fell flat on the floor, trying to take off most of the food now on her ruined costume. 

“Ray! I’m so sorry I forgot about you, I was just so relieved to see Callum and-“ Claudia stopped as she saw the girl on the floor. “Ray, what happened?” she asked as she knelt to be at Rayla’s level 

“I... I just...” the woman tried to explain herself and her position but no words came out. Fortunately, Claudia didn’t need them 

“C'mon. Let’s get you cleaned up.” She pulled Rayla up by her arm and with a hand on her back, they both headed up the stairs “Callum! I’ll be back soon!” she waved a hand at him and in a lower voice only for Rayla to hear she said “I’ve got just the dress for you” 

* * *

“You know Rayla when my mom told me the stories about the evening star granting wishes, Soren always thought I was kinda crazy for believing in it!” She was leaning against her vanity and organizing some books on her shelf "But hey! Who’s crazy now! And-“ Claudia stopped talking as Rayla showed on the door. The girl still had the marks she painted on and the plastic black horns, but she was wearing a dark green strapless dress that went to her feet and had semi-transparent fabric hanging from her waist, complementing the regal look. She leaned against the doorframe as Claudia approached her with a small plastic tiara and put on her head “You look so pretty Rayla...” she took a necklace from her desk and put around Rayla’s neck “Seems like yesterday I first entered Xadia’s and you served me for the first time and I discovered your dream about your restaurant. And now that dream is coming true.” Rayla closed her eyes as Claudia opened the door that leads the room into the corridor “Well, I gotta go back to the ballroom! Make yourself at home!” she says as she went down the hallway, leaving the white-haired woman alone. Heading off to the bathroom, Rayla folded her dirty costume and took a deep breath, holding back the tears. 

“Almost...” she let the first tears fall “Almost there...” she headed to the balcony on the bedroom, passing through the big and open doors. She put her elbows on the white fence and covered her mouth as the tears fell. Looking up she saw that the clouds once more let the evening star shine through the night. Biting on her lip, she looked around. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Sighing loudly she said the famous mantra “Please, please, please!” Upon opening her eyes, she saw a frog at her side. Her eyes widened and she gasped lightly. Rolling her eyes she looked deadpan at the animal “Very funny... So what now? Ya want a kiss or something?” she closed her eyes. She swore for a second that the green creature blushed but a second after this was the least of the worries of her sanity 

“What?” The animal questioned back and Rayla did what was expected. She screamed. Loudly. 

Running back to the room without looking she actually ran into the bookshelf, spilling all the books on the floor. 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” the animal talked again making Rayla look at it again and with a book on her hands she threw at it, who dodged masterfully until she started throwing more at him. “ _OKAY! PLEASE CALM DOWN!_ ” she didn’t obey as it had again to dodge 

“STAY BACK OR I’LL-“ She screamed with a slightly less heavy book on her hands and it panicked and got close to her by jumping on the vanity near her 

“Please, please, please!” he fell and she looked at him “Allow me to introduce myself!” he stood up on his two legs “I am Callum-“ he was hit with the book. She took a few steps back 

“Callum? As in _the prince_? But I didn’t wish for-“ she looked outside and the star was clouded once again “Hold on!” she clutched the book against her chest “If you’re **THE** Callum, _THEN WHO WAS THAT WALTZING WITH CLAUDIA BACK THERE?_ ” she raised her voice at it 

“I honestly have no idea! All I know is that one minute I’m a human and then the next thing I know, I’m tripping over these!” he pointed at his legs. At the same moment, Rayla raised the book over her head and prepared to hit it again “ _WAITWAITWAIT_... wait!” he looked at the cover of the book “I know that story!” Rayla looked up to read what it said 

“’The Frog Prince?’” she handed the book to the animal “My mom used to tell me all these fairy tales before she met-“ he trailed off as he skimmed through the pages only to find the one which took Rayla to a nostalgic trip. Who knew her and Claudia once read the same books. The page featured the same beautiful princess kissing the frog “This is the answer!” He pointed at the picture. He cleared his throat and once again she saw it blushing “I need a kiss from a princess...” he looked at her but refusing to meet her eyes. With her hands at her hips, she leaned over 

“Excuse me?!” she raised a brow as the frog walked over on two legs once again 

“I know this may upset you but you need to help me!” he pleaded. Rayla saw the frog and almost gave in as he looked at her and she sighed 

“Look, I’m sorry. I really want to help, but I have a promise with myself to never, never and I mean never kiss a frog!” She gags a little and avoids his gaze 

“But wait, on the balcony! You asked me!” 

“ _I DIDN’T EXPECT YA TO ANSWER!_ ” she says frowning at him 

“Look, I know this is not ideal but maybe we can make... a deal?” she looked inquisitively at him “I’m sure my mom would be glad to have her son back and offer you a reward! Maybe a wish just a queen could grant?” she looked over to her dirty clothes now on the bed of the room. Fidgeting with her fingers, she looked over at it 

“Just one kiss?” she refrained the gag 

“Is all need.” He looked at her with the big Jade eyes and she took a deep breath before doing some pep talk in her mind _(Okay Rayla, you can do this! You can do this! Just one kiss! Just one kiss!)_

Breathing in and out, she finally said out loud an _“okay”_ and swiftly closed her eyes and kissed the frog. She could faintly hear an almost magical sound before quickly blacking out. 

When Callum's eyes opened he was still a frog but the Princess was nowhere to be seen. He looked around the room, finally snapping his attention to the dress and tiara on the floor and gasping loudly again 

“Oh sh-“ the small lump under the dress started to move. 

“Ya don’t look much different!” she said before noticing she was on a rather low level. “but why am I on the fl-“ she finally took notice of her reflection on the shiny marble floor. 

She was no longer a human. 

_She was a frog too._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This episode presents some original characters I created a while back when I first watched the second season of the show, so just you have some context who they are:  
> Faith was a Startouch elf who died during the conflicts between humans and elves. Many people described her as a shy but wise elf. She was a mage  
> Lorelei (or Lorei) was her wife and she’s an Earthblood elf, often described as a hopeless romantic whose head was many times in the clouds, dreaming about anything that she found slightly amusing.  
> Before dying, Faith enchanted a bracelet for Lorelei. The bracelet gave Lorelei the ability to disguise herself as a human so she could have a normal life again. Even though her wife was dead for years, Lorei kept Faith in her heart and kept hope on the stars that one they would be reunited again. Lorelei currently lives at the small village at the base of the mountain of Cursed Caldera (the same Ellis and Ava live)  
> Anyway, that’s all the context you need. I apologize for the number of words again. I’m getting a bit carried away with this lol  
> Also, today (January 3rd) is my B-Day, so consider this a gift for me and for all of you who are here reading this AU! Thank you so much!

_She can scream a lot in only 5 minutes_ , that’s what’s going over Callum’s mind at this moment.

The _woman_ screeched and he flinched at that. Suddenly he felt something hit his face. Or rather someone.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” she screamed at him while shaking him violently

“D-Don’t panic!” he said amid her outburst

“I’M GREEN AND I’M SLIMY!” She said as she touched her skin and mucus stuck on her hand

“Actually, that’s not slime, that’s mucus! It helps the frog-“ before he could continue, she launched into him, making them fall of the vanity on to the seat, which fell down, making them roll on the recently waxed floor and falling of the balcony whose doors were still open.

Both of them fell into the buffet table, who still had some of the contents spilled on it, but most of them were being cleaned by Ethari and Runaan who were covering for Rayla while she was inside the house. They looked down at the two slippery creatures and before they could react in any sort of way, a feminine voice screamed upon seeing both of them and startling everyone at the party.

Prince Ezran’s pet, Bait took the opportunity to jump off the prince’s arms and running around the crowd, making Ezran go after it.

Seeing the hazard created, Callum took Rayla’s hand and pulled her from the buffet table.

“RUN!” they both jumped

“I can’t run! I’m a frog!” she screamed

“THEN HOP!” they were soon jumping on all the plates of the tables to escape the hazard they’ve just created

“BAIT COME BACK!” Ezran screamed as he tried to get through the crowd and go after bait who was “imitating” the other frogs and walking on the table too.

“Where are we goin’?” Rayla exclaimed as they both hopped on more dishes

They finally reached the end of all the tables, but from not knowing how to use her new pair of legs, Rayla tripped and rolled down at the end, getting both her and Callum tangled in strings of helium balloons. Ezran was finally catching up with his pet, getting close just as Callum untied the balloons from the table.

“GOING UP!” He grabbed Rayla to prevent her from falling. “Got you!” he exclaimed loudly enough for both the toad and his brother to hear

“Callum?” the boy said as both of the frogs flew to the sky. Besides from the boy’s voice, Rayla swore she heard the toad speaking too.

“D-Did that toad just talk? AM I GOIN’ CRAZY?” she questioned herself

“Not wanting to be rude or anything but if you’re going to be crazy about anything slightly off,” he helped her grab the strings of the balloons “this is going to be a very long night!” he raised his voice just enough for someone on the ground to hear if they were paying attention. Unfortunately, someone heard them

Aaravos looked up to the sky and took his cloak off his head and his face was furious.

Heading to his own private office, what he saw is that his moon moths broke out while at the party. The moon moths while in their own private party smashed the jar where the frog was. Putting his hand to his forehead, he took his cube and upon drawing a moon-rune, all the moon moths got into a more sealed jar. His door opened and of course “Prince Callum” appeared at the door. He heard the moon moth calling.

“This is why I was never fond of moon moths! Always so curious and snooping their wings where they shouldn’t” He eyed the moonstone on the neck of the prince. “Well, you at least did your job quite right tonight. Once the wedding is sealed, I can finally get rid of ‘Lord Virus’ once and for all. These years watching him have been torture, but it’s all for the better.” He looked at the mirror and straightened his outfit. “Tomorrow is another day, Aaravos. You’ll need that prince back soon, but not now, this is all a minor bump in the road, as long the prince’s blood is in this…” he eyed cube and for a moment, it was glinting, and some faded red blobs could be seen.

* * *

“PRIMAL SOURCES?” Rayla asked as both she and Callum floated up the trees of the forest. It started to pour from the sky a good 5 minutes before and they were both wet “Ya sayin’ that all this happened because you messed with an archmage?” she looked, to put it lightly, disgusted.

“HE WAS VERY CHARISMATIC!” he tried to explain, and she only groaned

“It serves me right for wishing on stars! The only way to get what you want in this world is from hard work!” she groaned even more

“Wait, why would a princess need to work?” he asked genuinely

“What? Oh, I’m no princess, I’m a waitress, my friend.” His eyes widened

“A waitress? No offense but I thought you were a real princess?”

“Well, I’ve never said that, if you assumed that: Not. My. Problem.” She infatuated every word

“That’s why the kiss didn’t work!” he groaned even loudly

“Well, excuse me, prince! It was a costume party, you spoiled little rich boy!” she narrowed her eyes at him

“I’M SPOILED? JUST YOU KNOW, THE FIRST-“ he tried to argue but suddenly he heard the balloons up him pop one by one. They had hit a spiky tree. “Uh-oh”

They fell. Hitting every branch they found on their way to the floor and eventually falling into a river

“What were you sayin’ spoiled rich boy?” she says as she goes up to confront him. She takes a small fish from his green head and waves around before throwing in the water and a big fish goes up to eat it, startling both of them into the shore

“The thing is, my mom was really mad at me the last time I saw her! She wants me to marry Claudia!” they hop around the shore

“And you don’t want to marry her?”

“Of course I don-“ they didn’t notice they headed for a hole on the ground who leads to another part of the river. They both fell into it, sliding on the dirt until they fell flat on logs on the river. Rayla sat on it and rubbed her sore head

“All right then, you marry her, you keep your promise and you will give me my ‘wish’, right?” she narrowed her eyes at him

“First, I promised that if you returned me to my mom! You didn’t do that. Second, I don’t want to marry-“ he felt a slight tremor on the water “are those logs moving?”

Looking around, they saw 5 “logs” swimming in their direction, revealing themselves to be alligators

“Those aren’t logs…” they both were quickly cornered in the center as all the alligators. The log they were on quickly moved too, making both screams as another alligator got his head out of the water and talking to them

“I got dibs on the biggest one!” they all quickly jumped on both of them, making Callum and Rayla having to jump between all the sharp teeth. Impressively, Rayla dodged all of them and jumped into a piece of a dead tree, who fell into the river just as she reached the hole of a big and high tree where she would be safe until the alligators decided to go away.

“Psst” looking down from the hole on the tree, she saw that the prince was laying against the wood of the tree “Throw me a vine.” He said quietly

“Go to another tree!” she said a bit louder than she intended, taking the attention of the 6 alligators

“THERE HE IS!” They all screamed in one unique voice and swam at them

“OKAY! Look!” he turned to look at her “Help me get out of this crazy situation and once I do what I do, I shall get your restaurant!” he pleaded with his hands clasped together as the reptiles started to corner him

“Come here, froggy!” the alligator who called “dibs” earlier attacked just in time for Rayla to throw a vine and pull him up into the hole. As they both looked down to see their predators they looked up at their preys “We got all night” they all said in one voice again and proceeded to laugh

“Well, it looks like we’re going to be here for a while… w-what’s your name?” he asked bashfully. She scoffed and sat on the opposite corner of their “room”

“Rayla” she answered before laying down to sleep

“Cool… mine is Callum…” he said trying to light up the mood

“I already knew that, but thanks… Callum”

* * *

The morning sun shone through the hole of the tree. Callum slept peacefully. That is before Rayla threw a nut at him to wake him up, which he did, and he groaned in pain before rubbing the spot

“Rise and shine, sleepy prince! The beasts are gone!” she was standing on the border of the hole and quickly jumped out. Callum looked out only to see a prototype of a boat she probably put up alone during the night. It was impressive, to say at least. “We need to get back to the city and undo the mess you got us into!” she pointed at him and without missing the beat, he jumped on the platform.

“I already told you I am sorry! Are you ever letting that go?” she sighed and started to paddle the boat with a stick.

“I sure could use a Lil’ help!” she said as she paddled away

“I don’t really know how to paddle, but I do know how to make an amazing pirate impression! My brother taught me!” he cleared his throat “ARRR! We’re goin’ back to the city and breaking this spell, arrr!” he said in the worst pirate impression Rayla ever heard

“This is seriously not helpin’! And you’re drawing attention! Quit it befor-“ Rayla said as she looks behind the prince, who was still brushing up his pirate accent, and saw an alligator rising its head behind him and opening his mouth, making them both scream in terror before running into each other in fear

“AYE! FINALLY A FELLOW MATE FOR ME!” the beast exclaimed. Both of them, still hugging in fear looked up to the reptile. Callum without thinking twice, let go of Rayla and she fell down

“HEY WHAT’S UP, PIRATE FELLOW? ARR!” they both laughed together as Rayla looked at them in disbelief.

“AYE! WHERE YOU BEEN ALL MY PIRATE LIFE?” the alligator said as it spun with the frog in its hands. Rayla looked at them, clearly not amused

“Ol’ Villads would give anything to be a real pirate!” Suddenly Raylla noticed the scar on its left eye and how it didn’t open

“Why don’t you?” Callum asked, reverting to his normal voice

“Aye! I tried once. It didn’t really work. “ he points at its left eye and Rayla flinches slightly and she jumps on the shore where both of them are

“Uh-huh. It has been a real pleasure meetin’ ya… Villas.”

“Villads! There’s a silent d!” it corrected her

“How did you know I didn’t say the-“ she shook her head “Anyway! Thank you for not eating us, but we best be on our way.” She pulls Callum into the boat again and starts paddling away

“Where… Where y’all going?” he asks them

“To find somebody to break this spell!” she still paddles

“What spell ya’ talking?” he quirks a brow. Callum gets up on the boat

“Brace yourself, my pirate friend! We are not frogs. We are humans.” And upon that statement, Villads laughs loudly before stopping abruptly

“Ya serious?” Callum takes the cue

“I am Callum, prince of Katolis. And she is Rayla, waitress by day, ‘elven princess’ by night.” At her mention, she looks at him with disgust and groans before he says in a lower voice _“I don’t recommend you to kiss her”_ which she puts the stick she was using on the boat and walks up to them

“Now, just a second!” she pushes him on to the wood and glares at him “this goon here got himself turned into a frog by a master of the ‘6 primal sources’ and now-“

“Primal sources?! Like the thing Lujanne does?” the reptile started trembling abruptly

“Lujanne?” Callum looked at Rayla with uncertainty

“Aye! She is a mage of the cursed caldera! She got magic and spells, all kind of things!” The frogs looked at each other brightly

“Could you take us to her?!” they both asked him at the same time

“Through the deepest, darkest part of the forest? Facin’ razor-sharp pricker bushes and trappers and hunters with guns?” he paused “No.” he jumped into the water and floating on his back.

Rayla sighed, but Callum stopped her before she could go back to paddling

“Watch and learn.” He whispered to her. He went to the animal and jumped into his stomach and talked to him “Villads, it is too bad we cannot help you with your dream. If only you were smaller, less scary, you could be a pirate without the risk of scaring your crew and losing your other eye. Well, goodbye, my pirate friend!” he jumped back in the plank and smiled at Rayla

“Cute, but it’s not goin’ to…“ he raised a finger at her to shush her and she frowned at him

“Hey fellas! I jus’ had a crazy idea!” Callum smiled at her slyly “What if I ask Lujanne to turn me human?”

“Villads! You’re a genius!” Callum took Rayla’s hand and jumped into Villads’ head and they all headed down the river together

* * *

“Callum, I talked to your mom this morning and she told me something…” Claudia says as she and Callum reach the gazebo

“What is it?” he asked sitting down on the delicate white chair

“She told me you didn’t react nicely to the news of the marriage. I know it’s arranged and all, but I was wondering if you still feel bad about it.” She sat on the other chair facing him “Last night at the conference in the after party when it was announced, you didn’t really sound annoyed at slightest. You’re not bottling up your emotions, are you?” She asked taking his hand

“I had some time to think about it when I disappeared before the party. I realized that it was important for you to please your father. I know how important he is to you.” He squeezed the woman’s hand and she smiled brightly

“Thank you so much, Call!” She hugged him but didn’t feel him correspond either deny it. When she looked at him, he had the blankest stare she ever saw on his face. “Call?” she waved a hand in front of him

“Claudia?” She heard Aaravos’ voice as he entered the gazebo with his usual gracefulness. “If I’m allowed to, I need to take Prince Callum to the tailor for his wedding suit. You should probably be on your way too. I heard the bride is the most hard-working role of a wedding.” His Cheshire grin found its way into his face and she nodded, before skipping away, probably to find Sarai and Amaya. Once he was sure she was gone, he took notice of the moonstone around, now frozen, prince Callum. Its glow was faint, only enough to hold a pose.

“Looks like I’ll have to take care of that prince myself…” He snatched the necklace off and “Prince Callum” quickly dissolved into 4 moon moths who flew away. “Really didn’t want to use dark magic, but it's too late to back off now.” He put the moonstone in his pocket.

* * *

“Now, Rayla, this restaurant of yours is it going to have moon berries, aye?”

“That and more! It’s going to have it all!” she gestured and laid her head into his scaled back.

“Arr! I’ve always wanted to try some human food! Jelly tarts, cakes, pies, salads! Bread sandwiches are a thing, aye?” Callum laughed

“Stop, Villads! You two are making me very hungry!” he rubbed his stomach infatuating his point.

Some mosquitos flew by catching Callum’s attention and he noticed that his frog tongue went after then “Interesting.” He jumped after them in the water.

“What are ya doin’?” Rayla looked at him as he jumped in some lily pads

“Shh! You are frightening the food!” he whispered as he approached them. He launched his tongue at them, which didn’t work, and it launched back at him, making him laugh genuinely “This is harder than I thought…” he tried again, but rolled his tongue on a branch which broke and hit him in the face. For the first time in the night, Rayla laughed. As a firefly passed by her and stopped at a dandelion in front of the moon. Rayla locked eyes with it and like Callum’s, her tongue stuck out slightly.

“No! Nonono… NO! THERE’S NO WAY I AM KISSIN’ A FROG AND EATIN’ A BUG ON THE SAME DAY!” The instincts came in and she quickly being pulled to the firefly while shouting and muffling her mouth

Callum was viewing all of this as a joke, so he tried to hit the firefly at the same time, tying their tongues together and hitting their heads together.

“Hey” he voiced even though his tongue was probably a tied mess. Rayla quickly pushed him back as both tried to undo the knot.

_“Hold still!” “Stop movin’” “You are making this very difficult!”_

“Did you two find anything to eat yet?” Villads came through the tall grass on the shore of the river only to find both of them struggling “Arr! Didn’t mean to interrupt!”

“What? You’re not interruptin’ anythin’!” she argued back

“Oh! Hang on, aye! Ol’ Villads got it covered!” He grabbed both frogs and mushed them together, twisting and turning with his big claws as Rayla and Callum groaned in pain “How’s that, maties?” Now Callum and Rayla were all tied up by their own tongues

“This could be a little better.” Rayla voiced as Callum tried to move

“Aye! I know what this calls for! A sharp stick! I’ll be right back, arr!” He drifted himself into the tall grass again leaving both alone and they continued their banter

_“This is all your fault!” “How is this my fault?” “Let’s start with the whol’ deal with the archmage?” “Okay let me tell you something, I was having a wonderful time until you…”_

“Hey, are you two okay?” Both looked up to see the firefly they almost hit earlier floating above them “Do the two lovebirds need any help with this situation?”

_“Oh nonono!” “Don’ be ridiculous! He’s not my boyfriend!” “I’m only here because she started it!”_

“Okay! Let me shine a light in this situation!” It's behind glow making Rayla and Callum flinch slightly. “Do not worry. I’m a firefly, we do this all the time. Now let me see this…” it jumped inside them, making a light shine through the fissures of their bodies and finally coming out with the end of one of their tongues and pulled, successfully freeing them. “Well, let me introduce myself! My name is Lorelei, but everyone calls me Lorei! Y’all must be new around here, huh?”

“Actually, we are from a place far, far away from this world.” Callum got up from the water

“Really? Y’all from Las Vegas?” Callum gaped at her before responding

“No. No, no, no. We are people!”

“Prince Charming here got himself turned into a frog by an archmage!” Callum shrugged his shoulders “And we were on our way to Lujanne’s. We think maybe she can-”

“Wait! Lujanne’s?” Lorei floated up to her front. Rayla nodded “Well sorry to say that but you’re going in the wrong direction, girl. Who told you to go this way?”

As in a theater cue, Villads emerged from the grass holding a stick in his claws

“I found a stick, maties!” Rayla narrowed her eyes at him

“Villads, Lorei here says you’ve been taking us in the wrong direction.” She crossed her arms as the reptile chuckled nervously

“I was… Well, listen. I don’t have one eye, so I got really confused aye? The north and south were all mixed up and-“ he drifted off

“Listen to me girl, never take direction from a gator, especially a half-blind gator.” She whistled to the night, making the dark part of the river light up with hundreds of lights “Let me and my friends show y’all the way!”

“Wow…” Callum exclaimed in awe as the hundred’s fireflies started to gather above them

“C’mon guys! We can show you the way!” Suddenly all the fireflies created a line through the night, guiding them

* * *

Sitting in his office, Aaravos lit up a few candles. Grabbing a book that was scattered on the floor and a jar with a few glowing creatures inside.

“Pathetic.” He said as he opened the book, only to show a few drawings, most of them were of landscapes or of the royal family of Katolis. He ripped one of the pages, neatly folding it and putting on one bowl. He continued to rip almost every page that was used and doing the same thing. Once he was done, he pushed the book out of his table.

Getting a glowing caterpillar of the jar, he crushed it in his hands, putting what’s left of it inside the bowl. The mix burned the papers creating a glowing powder. Getting the powder in his hands, he put all the candles he lit up at his front. With the powder in his hands, he splattered over all the flames

 _“!snissassa ykomS !niaga esir nellaf fo hsA”_ he blew every candle while his eyes glow a purple and pink hue, making dark figures made of shadow and smoke rise and bow to him. Standing up from his chair. “Go out there and find Prince Callum, but be careful, his heart must beat… for now.”

Not waiting for another cue, they passed through the walls and disappearing into the night.

* * *

“I’ll take them the rest of the way! Take care! Oh and tell Ellora I said good luck!” Lorei said as her friends went back into the woods

“Ellora? Is that your girl?” Rayla asked him sincerely

“Oh no!” she chuckled “My girl? That’s Faith!” Rayla could hear the love in Lorei’s voice

“Faith?” she hopped with Lorei behind her

“She’s the prettiest firefly ever did glow!” she zipped up in awe “I talk to Faith almost every night. She’s shy, she never did say much and sometimes she hides from me, but I do know in my heart that one day, we’ll be together!” Rayla smiled

“That’s so sweet Lorei!”

“Yeah,” Callum said genuinely which made Rayla smile at him. She jumped and took a stick and started to take down some bushes with prickers and Callum went after her. Villads, on the other hand, didn’t react nicely to a single pricker on his reptilian skin. He fell back screaming in pain

“CAPTAIN DOWN! MY SHIP IS SINKING!” Lorei only looked deadpan at her “THE SEA IS SO DARK AND COLD!”

“Hold still okay?” The firefly said as she pulled the thing off his claw and Villads screamed even more

* * *

“Why are ya followin’ me?” Rayla asked Callum as she jumped on a few branches

“Just interested in what are you doing!”

“I’m gettin’ food for us, duh. And please, if you’re followin’ me, at least get a better excuse.” She rolled her eyes

“No excuses at all, I am serious!” he smiled at her

“Oh, sure! You’re interested in the ‘waitress’ whose dreams depend on a prince and his marriage! Go on! I believe ya, little royal prince!” She jumped down into the ground and started looking around for some sort of food. She didn’t see Callum’s smile falter and turn into a straight line

“Well Rayla, let me tell you something!” He jumped down and stomped up to her “for the first 6 years of my life, I had to cope with my mom trying to raise me alone because my dad died when I was a baby. She worked hard every day to make me happy. You say I am a spoiled boy, but I was never that, okay?!” Rayla stopped dead on her tracks and looked at him. But there was no sign of a joke in his face and she understood that. She looked at her feet, shamefully, and he sighed “Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I am not usually like this.” He sat on a stump and covered his face. She sat at his side and took a deep breath

“Callum… I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have judged you without really knowin’ what you’ve been through. I know how hard it is to cope after losin’ someone you love. Your mother is really strong and I’m really glad she found love again with your step-dad.” He looked up to her and saw her smile, a genuine smile, without wittiness or irony.

“Thanks, Rayla.” He smiled up to her too.

“C’mon! You’re helping me with the food. I’ll teach you somethings for your wedded life.” They went back on their way, Callum asking if a certain mushroom was good for the food, with Rayla only smiling at him before nodding or denying only by looking at the edible fungi. Snapping a leaf of a branch, she folded around her waist and took his hand, while offering him a sharp small stone. “You mince these mushrooms while I get the rest, alright?” He grabbed the stone and settled the fungi on a small root. He started cutting. It was far from perfect, slices uneven and of different sizes, but it was better than nothing.

“Watch and learn.” She took the “knife” and with great skill, minced the uneven parts Callum did in a flash, making Callum gape at her as she handed down the knife again to him and guided his movements on another mushroom and he quickly was doing pretty good.

“You know, I’ve never done this before. Cooking I mean.” He continued the mincing

“Really? I am so shocked!” she chuckled at him while gathering the bits of mushroom and putting on a makeshift cauldron made of a pumpkin

“I’m serious!” He laughed with her “Before I was 7, I had no idea what to do. I was never good at making friends when I wasn’t a prince, so finding new ones after my mom married the king was almost impossible.” Rayla started a fire under the makeshift cauldron and looked at him. “The only thing I’ve ever considered myself good at was art. The king gave me a sketchbook on my first birthday as a prince and I discovered I was good at that, but it was never enough. Maybe that’s why they want me to marry Claudia. They probably think I’m not good enough to live at the castle with them.” He put his hand under his chin and looked sad while pushing the minced parts from him

“Hey, ya know how to mince mushrooms. Maybe ya can be the official mushroom mincer at my restaurant if you keep practicin’.” She shrugged her shoulders before dumping the parts into the pumpkin.

“Really?” he asked her with a big chagrin

“Nope!” he groaned playfully and laughed together as Callum claimed that was a low blow

* * *

“Anyone for seconds?” Rayla asked with a “bowl” on her hands

“This is seriously amazing Rayla! You truly have a gift!” Callum handed her his bowl. She felt her insides mix and she smiled

“Why… thank you!” she avoided his gaze in embarrassment and filled his bowl.

“There she is!” Lorei said floating from the dandelion she was sitting and looking up to the night sky “the sweetest firefly in all creation!”

“Faith?” Rayla and Callum jumped into a lily pad and started looking around

“Aye! I want to meet this girl! Where is she mate?” Villads looked around too

“Right up there! How can you miss her? She’s the ray of moonlight I need on the darkest nights!” Lorei pointed at the evening star, making Callum and Rayla look at each other awkwardly “ _♪_ _Look how she lights up the sky!_ ” she floated up _“_ _♪_ _Ma belle Faith_ _…”_

“Mate! That ain’t no fire-“ Callum threw a small rock at Villads and told him to shush

“ _♪_ _So far above me, yet I_ _”_ Callum and Rayla shrugged their shoulders in silence _“_ _♪_ _Know her heart belongs to only me_ _…”_ the firefly spun in the air and made a heart shape “ _♪_ _Je t_ _’_ _adore! Je t’aime, Faith!”_ Callum and Rayla smiled at her “ _♪_ _You_ _’_ _re my queen of the night! So still, so bright! That someone as beautiful as she,”_ entertained by the song, Rayla didn’t notice the loving glances Callum shot in her direction _“_ _♪_ _could love someone like me.”_ Callum took Rayla’s hand and pulled her up to a dance, which she backed off

“No, I don’t dance.” She smiled weakly

“ _♪_ _Love always finds a way, it_ _’_ _s true_ _”_ Callum grabbed her hand which she took it off again before jumping on another lily pad

“I’ve never danced.” She looked down as Callum smiled at her

“ _♪_ _And I love you, Faith._ _”_ Pulling her up again, he smiled at her brightly and Rayla swears she saw his pupils dilate

“If I can mince, you can dance.” She smiled at him and tried to follow his lead. She never did dance before, but she is used to seeing Ethari and Runaan constantly dancing around the house when both thought they were alone. Callum picked her up and spun her, making her exclaim but in a good way.

In the sidelines, Villads and Lorei looked at each other knowingly. Takin the opportunity, Lorei lit up some lily pad flowers around the pair, as Callum taught the moves of ballroom dancing to Rayla.

 _“_ _♪_ _Love is beautiful! Love is wonderful!_ _”_ Lorei sang accompanying the rhythm between them. _“_ _♪_ _Love is everything! Do you agree?”_ Rayla and Callum laughed with each other as he almost slipped on the water. _“_ _♪_ _Mais oui!_ _”_ Callum twirled and dipped Rayla down _“_ _♪_ _Look how she lights up the sky!_ _”_ When Rayla’s eyes met his, he swore she saw her violet eyes shine just like a billion stars and he smiled at her _“_ _♪_ _I love you, Faith_ _♪_ _”_ Both of them closed their eyes as Callum brought Rayla up, her mind finally started to work again and she backed away from him.

“Wow…” Callum’s eyes opened again and he embarrassingly took his hands out of her waist and avoided her gaze. “Claudia is getting herself a great dance partner.” She took his hands out of hers “We… need to get going.” She jumped away from the lily pad. Callum tried to say something but he didn’t find any words within him, so he just sighed.

That is before he was grabbed by Aaravos’ shadows, his scream startling everyone

“RAYLA!” he screamed

“CALLUM!” she jumped after him leading the way with Villads and Lorei behind her “NONONO!” she was shouting.

The prince grabbed a root and tried to hold himself. The shadows only pulling himself harder.

All of a sudden, the shadows disappeared when a bright rune was draw in the air, dissipating all of them when the light hit them, freeing Callum from its grasp.

“Well, I’m getting rusty, but that wasn’t bad for an old Moon mage.” A tall woman got out of the shadows on her big bird. “Now let me ask you something, who’s been messing with primal sources?”

There was no denying it, everyone pointed at Callum who smiled bashfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is the end and I'm really excited to finish it, thank you so much for sticking with me during this AU I created in the middle of the night. Never thought this would be my first fanfiction but I'm really happy with how it turned out  
> Thank you all so much, you're really important!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, but this has almost 10k of words! I wanted to be special to everyone!  
> Quick disclaimer: I "changed" the ending of this in comparison with the movie, because I rewrote it at least 4 times using the ending of it as a base but it wasn't fitting and I would feel bad just giving y'all a chapter which I wasn't satisfied with.  
> That's all from me (for now), so enjoy the chapter!

“We’re so glad we found ya, Ms. Lujanne!” Rayla says as they all step into the secluded house/library in the middle of the forest “Villads and Lorei have been tellin’ us all about ya! We’ve been travellin’ quite the long way, and you can’t imagine what we’ve been through!” Lujanne stops in front of a shelf “And we heard that ya-“

“Phoe-Phoe!” The big bird from earlier, enters through the doors and gets close so Lujanne can pet it “You love me, don’t you?” Phoe-Phoe doesn’t answer but the pleased look on its face tells everything and she turns to the animals behind her “good to see you again, Lorei! How’s everyone in your small village?”

“Oh! They’re fine, I didn’t tell Ellis about Ava’s leg just like you told me not to. They’re the joy of everyone y’know?” Lorei said

“I’m glad for that.” Lujanne picks up a book and sits on a couch and starts to read it.

“Lujanne,” Rayla and Callum jumped on the arm of the couch “we don’t want to take too much your time…”

“Do you guys want some candy?” she searched her pocket and took out two pieces of candy and offered them. Rayla and Callum looked at each other uncomfortably

“No… Not really.” Callum politely declined as Rayla shook her head

“Well, I guess that’s too bad. It’s special candy.” She said and sighed deeply “It turns both of you back into humans-“ she put both pieces of candy in her mouth

“WAIT!” They shouted at the same time and Lujanne laughed at them

“I’m messin’ with you two!” she closed the book on her lap. Rayla took a deep breath

“How did ya know we both wanted to turn back into-“ Lujanne’s head shot up and she got up quickly before turning to another room.

“I completely forgot about my dinner!” she ran into the supposed kitchen and stirred the cauldron

“Ms. Lujanne, if ya please…” Rayla and Callum jumped on the cauldron’s edge.

“Shh! Taste this!” she offered a spoon of the soup inside of the cauldron and Rayla drank it, tasting it. “Well?”

“If ya put more pepper, it’s perfect! Now, can we…” She went to her cupboard and a jar which read “Pepper” in it and she put some of it in the liquid and took a full spoon, before grinning widely.

“That’s just what it needed!” Callum could see that Rayla was losing her patience, which wasn’t the biggest if he learned anything in the last two days. “Now, did you two figure out what _you_ need?” Rayla and Callum looked up to her

“It’s just like ya said, Ms. Lujanne. We need to be human again.” Rayla said looking at their reflections on the soup

“Are you sure about that? Maybe that’s what you want, but that’s not what you need!” the mage said confusing both of them

“What we want? What we need? Isn’t that all the same thing?” Callum said but she hit him in the head with the spoon

“Is the same thing? No! You listen to me now.” Lujanne got out of the kitchen heading back to where Villads and Lorei were waiting for all of them

“ _♪ It doesn_ _’t matter what you look like! Doesn’t matter what you wear! How many rings you got in your fingers! We don’t care, no!”_ She sang _“_ _♪ It doesn_ _’t matter where you come from! Doesn_ _’t even matter what you are!_ _”_ she took the book she was reading earlier and showed the cover with various animals _“_ _♪ A dog, a pig, a cow, a goat!_ _”_ she pointed to all of the animals in the order that was in the cover _“_ _♪ I had them all in here! And they all knew what they wanted! What they wanted me to do! I told them what they needed! Just like I will be telling you!”_ She threw the book on the couch started to search a chest on one side of the room _“_ _♪ You got to dig a little deeper! Find out who you are! You got to dig a little deeper! It really ain_ _’t that far._ _”_ She took a small box inside of the chest and opened up to show both of them a moon opal, reflecting Rayla e Callum onto its smooth surface “ _♪ When you find out who you are, you will find what you need!_ _”_ Callum smiled lovingly at Rayla as she inspected the gem curiously “ _♪ Blue skies and sunshine! Guaranteed!”_ she noticed him and he avoided her gaze embarrassingly. _“_ _♪ You got to dig! You got to dig!_ _”_ she tucked the opal back into the chest and turned to Callum as he was enjoying the song

_“_ _♪ Prince Frog was a rich boy!_ _”_ at his mention, Callum turned to Lujanne _“_ _♪ You want to be rich again?_ _”_ he lost his words _“_ _♪ Well, that isn_ _’t going to make you happy now, did it make you any happy then?_ _”_ he pondered but didn’t find chance to answer as the mage interrupted him _“_ _♪ No! Money doesn_ _’t have a soul, money doesn’t have a heart!”_ she handed him a golden coin which quickly dissolved into sand in his hand _“_ _♪ All you need is some self-control! Make yourself a brand new start! You got to dig a little deeper!_ _”_ She picked him up on her hand and put him on top of a table _“_ _♪ Don_ _’t have far to go!_ _”_ she turned him to face Rayla who was trying to dance with Lorei and had a big smile on her face _“_ _♪ You got to dig a little deeper! Tell the people I told you so! Can_ _’t tell you what you will find, maybe love will grant you a piece of mind!”_ Seeing Rayla so happy made his insides mix and a loving smile find its way into his face _“_ _♪ Dig a little deeper and you_ _’ll know!_ _”_ she put a finger into Callum’s chest while he was still smiling and headed towards Rayla _“_ _♪ Miss Frog?_ _”_ Lujanne’s voice made Rayla stop and she turned to look at her

“Ma’am?” she answered, stopping her dance

“Might I have a word?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lujanne chuckled and took Rayla in her hands, heading towards a window

“You are a hard one, that’s what I heard.” She drew a rune on the window and it showed some memories of Rayla and her parents _“_ _♪ Your family loved you so very much! Family, through and through!_ _”_ Rayla teared up upon seeing them _“_ _♪ You are your parents_ _’ daughter! What they had in them, you have in you!”_ Lujanne puts her finger in Rayla’s chest, making it glow slightly just where her heart is and Rayla smiled at her _“_ _♪ You got to dig a little deeper! For it_ _’s going to be tough!_ _”_ Lujanne pulls a specific book on a shelf, revealing a staircase taking to the second floor _“_ _♪ You got to dig a little deeper! You didn_ _’t dig near far enough!_ _”_ She chuckles at Rayla who shrugs her shoulders as she is carried up the stairs by Lujanne _“_ _♪ Dig down deep inside yourself, you will find out what you need!”_ Taking the lead, Callum hops up the stairs too. “ _♪ Blue skies and sunshine! Guaranteed!_ _”_ Stepping on the second floor, Lujanne put Rayla on her shoulder and opened the big doors leading to a big green area, which was hidden by the darkness of the night “ _♪ Open up the windows! Let in the light!_ _”_ As she said these words, all the garden lit up and Rayla took notice of the beauty that the place was. The big tree shadowed most of the place had colored glasses hanging from its branches that with Lujanne’s words, the light passed through all of them, creating a rainbow of colors everywhere “ _♪ Blue skies and sunshine! Blue skies and sunshine!_ _”_ Villads, Callum and Lorei trailed behind them excitedly. Rayla took her time to jump on Lujanne’s hand as she gave her the cue and involved with the music she didn’t notice what she did after

“ _♪ Blue skies and sunshine!_ _”_ She sang. Callum stopped in his tracks to look at her and was mesmerized by her under the rainbow of lights

“ _♪ Guaranteed!_ _♪_ _”_ Lujanne finished the song with Rayla in her hands and looked expectantly at her “Well, Rayla, do you understand what you _need_ now?”

“Yes! I do, Lujanne! I need to dig a little deeper and work even harder to get my restaurant!” she closed her eyes and nodded excitedly. Lujanne’s smile faltered and she sighed, dropping Rayla off her hands. Taking a deep breath she took both of the frogs in her hands

“Well, if you two are set on being humans, there’s only one way.”

She went down the stairs with both of them in her hands, setting them on the border of the cauldron again. She stirred the liquid inside and at one time she drew a rune using the spoon

“Soup, soup on the cauldron… We need a princess! Give us an option!” Suddenly the liquid inside wasn’t maroon anymore, but it showed some blurry scenes which quickly got more clear and it showed someone

“Claudia?!” Callum exclaimed. It was Claudia and she was reading a book in the gazebo. “But she’s not a princess!”

“Calm down Prince. Let’s go back a little.” She stirred the liquid counter-clockwise and it showed some scenes in Katolis last year when Viren and Harrow started to arrange the wedding of Callum and Claudia

_“As a courtesy of the wedding on the last day of the festival as we established, you’ll be leading the festivities, being their leader or as we can call it, King, of the festival!”_ Harrow laughed and extended his hand to his friend to officialize the things.

“If he’s ‘the king’, that makes Claudia… a princess!” Rayla gasped

“Does that count?” Callum asked

“Yes, it does! But only until midnight, when the festival is over!” Callum and Rayla gaped at each other “I would get goin’, you only got until midnight to get that princess to kiss you!” she stirred the soup again, showing 3 silhouettes, one of Claudia in a crown and two frogs. “And once she does,” the Claudia silhouette kisses one of the frogs' silhouettes “boom!” the two frogs silhouettes turn into humans “you both turn into humans again!” she took both of them off the edge of the cauldron and put them on the floor

“Wait? Midnight?” Callum exclaimed

“That doesn’t give us much time at all!” they hopped off together out of the kitchen

“Arr! What about me, Lujanne?” Villads asked as Lujanne almost bumped into her “I want to be human, aye! So I can be a pirate and navigate!”

“You need to dig a little deeper, maybe more than expected” she whispered the last part “Come on, come on!” she pushed him off the house’s door. “There’s a lot of river between here and the city! Bye-bye! You all need to swim!” The big gator stopped at his tracks.

“Wait! I have a better idea, aye!”

* * *

“C’mon crew” Villads looks around and jumps on the boat, whose coast is clear enough for a gigantic alligator jump in with his two frog friends and a firefly. Unfortunately, their peace doesn’t last as they hear and see shadows lurking in the corner.

“Hide!” Lorei screamed. Rayla and Callum jumped behind a box and Villads with his huge body, grabbed the first thing he saw on the floor, a sailor hat and put on his head, pretending to be a statue. Excepts, statues don’t tremble.

“Man! That’s one killer costume!” One of the men who appeared from the corner said. Villads opened his eyes and saw three mans dressed in animal costumes, but they also had sailors and pirate hats on their heads “Do you want to join the crew inside to pilot the boat?” A big smile appeared in Villads face and he nodded, following the men. Callum and Rayla sighed in relief. Both not noticing they were hugging behind the box. But when they did, they looked at each other surprisingly and quickly separated from each other, chuckling nervously and avoiding gazes

“We can’t miss this! Villads is driving his first boat!” Lorei said twirling in the air excitedly, flying in the direction where their friend went and Rayla hopped after. She stopped as soon she noticed Callum didn’t follow them

“Callum? You comin’?” she smiled at him

“Oh! I-I’ll catch up with you later!” he leaned against the box trying to show a calm façade. She continued to smile at him before disappearing in the corridors of the boat. Once she was gone, he sighed lovingly and noticed a bracelet with some different gems on it, including a smaller moon opal identical to the one they saw at Lujanne’s, and a wire from a champagne bottle. A light bulb went off.

* * *

Callum twisted the wire under the makeshift ring he made, before putting it away in a nutshell and closing it, imitating a wedding ring box. He holds it near his chest and looked up to see Faith in the sky. He sighed and decided to talk

“Faith, why can’t I just look Rayla in her eyes and say:” he holds the nutshell out to the star “’I will do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true because… because I love you’?” he knelt with the shell in his hands

_“HEY MATE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY GIRL?”_ he heard Lorei’s voice not far away and saw her flying in her direction faster than he ever saw. In reflex, Callum put his hand in front of her

“What? No, no, no!” He tried to explain but Lorei was with her tiny firefly arms punching his palm. “Lorei! I’m not in love with Faith! I am in love with Rayla!” as soon the words left his mouth, Lorei stopped and she smiled

“I knew it! I knew it! _I knew it!_ Come here!” She hugged his face while exclaiming excitedly

“I can’t marry Claudia!” Callum got up and walked on the edge while brainstorming

“You’re going to be so happy together!” Lorei zipped up and twirled in the air

“I’ll find another way to get Rayla her Restaurant!” he pondered

“You’re going to have the cutest little tadpoles!” she landed on his head

“I will get a job! Maybe two! Maybe three! Maybe I can do art commissions!”

“I can’t wait to tell her-“ Callum took her by the wing delicately before she could zip away

“No, no, no! I must tell her.” Callum said turning Lorei to face her “Alone.”

“Oh. Gotcha.” Lorei smiled knowingly at him

* * *

“Where are you takin’ me?” Rayla asked as they jumped up to the tallest part of the boat

“I just wanted to show you a little something to celebrate our last night as frogs. He motioned to the center of the collum. He heard her gasp softly.

The center was decorated with strings lights like the whole boat, but two small cups from the boat’s kitchen were arranged to two chairs and a small dessert cup made of glass was used to make a table

“Wow! I’m nineteen and in all of those years no one’s ever done anythin’ like this for me!” she put her hands into her heart and turned to look at him and she chuckled slightly. Callum was wearing a big black moth as a bowtie and was clearly uncomfortable.

“It’s too much, isn’t it?” he chuckled and whispered in a lower voice “Thank you, beaux.” The moth flew away complaining about thinking it was a nice touch. Rayla only suppressed a laugh at that. “Pretend you didn’t see that.” He put a hand on her back and guided her to the table “Please, sit down.” He pushed the cup for her like a true gentleman and she smiled at him. Going to his own seat, he pulled up the cup and took a ‘plate’ and presented to her “Ta-da!” he said as he eyed her movements. She gasped softly again

“Ya minced!” she said excitedly. The plate had various vegetables from the kitchen in small bits just like she demonstrated to him last night. She was proud, to put it lightly.

“I did!” she laughed and looked at him “You have had quite an influence on me!” she put her hand on her cheek and her elbow on the table while smiling at him and he swore his heart rate stopped for a second “which is incredible because I only listen to my mom, my brother and people who have authority over me…” her eyes widened slightly “that came out wrong. I’m sorry!” he tried to reach the nutshell beside his seat, not making a good job of playing it cool so she wouldn’t notice. She followed his movements “It’s just you’re normal! You’re okay… not that being normal and okay aren’t great attributes, because they are!” she narrowed and tried to figure out what he was trying to reach “You’re so cool you could probably be my sister!” that called her attention off the mysterious object he was able to get in his hands “but only because my mom is cool as you!” he explained himself “She actually can fight one on one with my step-dad and my aunt who’s a general and-“ he took a deep breath and hid the box behind his back “Let me start again.” He put his hand on the makeshift table, but it was on the edge and his weight made the cup fall, spiling the minced vegetables over him. She suppressed a laugh with her hand upon seeing him covered in vegetables “I’m not myself tonight-“ he then noticed the shell by her feet “RAYLA!” he took the box and hid it swiftly but not the sneakiest “Sorry, that was loud.” He said in a much softer voice. She laughed again and his expression fell. He sat on the floor with his head between his knees. “This is a complete disaster.”

“No, no! It’s adorable.” Her hand came closer to him and she took a few of the vegetables of his head. He looked up to her and laughed with her. She then batted her hands together to get the vegetables of them and looked into the horizon. Callum took a deep breath and took the box behind his back.

“Rayla I…” she then gasped softly and got up from her chair

“Look! There it is!” she went to the edge of the collum and sat on it

“Your restaurant?” he sat on her side and put the box on his other side

“Can’t ya just picture it? All lit up like a Christmas tree!” she had the biggest smile on her face

“Yes! Music and art pouring out of every window!” Callum noticed she had the incredible power of lighting up a spark of creativity and freedom when she talked about her dreams and he definitely didn’t want to lose that

“It should be elegant, though.” She made a gesture as if she was tidying up a very fancy hairstyle

“But you need to keep it loose though! Let it swing so people would be comfortable to come back!” he put a hand around her shoulders and they both chuckled in one single voice.

“Do ya know a good artist? I need the first pieces of art to be important!” she winked at him

“Really? Would you let me do the art for it?” she put a finger on her chin

“I’ll talk to the owner…” she looked around, “She said yes!” she laughed as he smiled widely. Once her laugh died, she took the sight in and her voice became softer and she entered a dazed state of mind “People are goin’ to come together from all the places” she sat her head on his shoulder and Callum’s cold-blooded skin became hot but he could be bothered by it “just to get a taste of our food.” Callum’s eyes looked at her and his heart was beating a mile per hour

“Our food…?” he opened the nutshell with a smile and took notice of the ring inside. His words snapped Rayla out of her daze

“Oh no, my parents! The three of us always wanted to open this restaurant. They died when I was 15 and never saw it happen. They were the loss I told I had to cope last night.” Callum’s mind traveled back to yesterday’s night: _“I know how hard it is to cope after losin’ someone you love.”_ he remembered her words loud and clear. He then felt her take his hand between hers “but tomorrow, with your help, our dream is finally coming true!” she beamed at him and he couldn’t hold his smile as a question popped in his head

“Tomorrow?”

“If I don’t deliver that money and more first thin’ tomorrow, I will lose this place forever.” Callum was no longer smiling. His mouth formed a straight line across his face

“Rayla, I love…” she looked at him and with the sparkle of Faith in her eyes, he took a decision.

Rayla’s dreams were more important than his journey and his feelings for her. He couldn’t take the beautiful dreams of a woman who lost almost everything only because he developed something more for her than friendship. He would do anything for her. Even if it meant that he had to give up his dreams and jump for her in a cliff he would never get out. Closing the shell he continued, not noticing the smile Rayla had on her face just by the mention of her name and the L-word on the same sentence said by him

“I love the way you light up when you talk about your dream.” He did his best to put a genuine smile on his face, but it hurt. Rayla smiled at him and she batted her lashes to him lovingly “A dream that… it is so beautiful, I…” he took Rayla’s hands between his “I promise, I will do anything and whatever it takes to make it come true.” Her smile quickly dissolved as she noticed his sad face. She had the words ‘are you okay’ in her tongue, but the boat hooting sound and the captain announcing the arrival at the port of the city made those words disappear. “I’ll go round up the group…” Rayla was never a good body language reader, but there was no denying by the hunched back, sad smile and hesitant steps down the collum that Callum was upset about something. She tried to reach him before he went down, but it was too late. She sighed and looked up the stars to find Faith up there, sparkling through the night as always

“Faith? I’ve always been so sure and set about what I wanted, but now… now I…” the words hurt her throat and squeezed her insides in a bad that she couldn’t ignore “what do I do? Please, please, please tell me…”

_“yggorf ecnirp ,teiuq yatS”_ the shadows whispered as they muffled Callum and took him through the shadows, not making a sound

* * *

“Callum?” Claudia’s knocks sounded through the door of his room “You better hurry up! Dad is waiting for us!”

“Just doing some breathing exercises, Clauds!” Aaravos said using his cube to fake Callum’s voice perfectly. “You can go ahead!”

“Alrighty! We’ll be waiting for you in the front yard!” she heard heels clicking down the floor and once they were far enough, Aaravos released his façade, putting the cube on the on a small center table, besides a jar with 4 moon moths, tidying his tie and looking out the dark night. “Unless I get that Prince blood in this cube, all of this would have been in vain.” The ground started to rumble and the smoky assassins opened the windows abruptly and handing the frog prince to him. Aaravos sighed in delight “We are back in business, aren’t we?”

“Get your hands off me!” Callum struggled but Aaravos grip was tighter than he thought.

“Now now, pretty boy. Stay still, your majesty.” He said approaching a needle to his green finger once again, making the cube on the center table glow again.

* * *

“Lorei! Have ya seen Callum?” Rayla asked worriedly as they departed from the boat, with Villads going with his crew to the center of the city

“Look at you! Already can’t be separated! Where’s the ring?” She asked looking at every green finger Rayla had

“What are ya talking about?” Lorei covered her mouth and turned the other way

“Well, if my mate didn’t say it, I’m not talking either! Lorei’s lips are sealed! You ain’t getting nothing out of me! Nope!” raising a brow at her, Rayla smiled at her mischievously

“Lorei…”

“FINE! Callum isn’t marrying Claudia! He’s going to marry you!” a smile started to born in Rayla’s face as she revisited Callum’s strange behavior in her mind “Soon as he gets that kiss and you both become human again,” the biggest smile Rayla ever smiled was born right there and now, her heart a mile per hour “he’s getting a job, getting you your restaurant…” Lorei then put her hand on her mouth “I said too much, didn’t I?” Rayla took her in her hands and was almost tearing up

“Ya said just enough, Lorei!” She hugged her close to her chest “Thank you, Faith!” she looked up the sky before jumping away from the port into the center of the city, where she knew most of the weddings during big festivals like this took place.

“He was goin’ to propose! That’s what the fumblin' was about!” Rayla hopped lively between hundreds of feet, dodging every one who tried to stand in her way “And here I thought all he wanted was to marry Claudia!”

“Calm down, girl! What are we looking for again?” Lorei exclaimed flying as fast as she could behind Rayla, who was really fast.

“Keep your eyes out for a big plaza in the center of the party!” She found a street light in the middle of the hazard and climbed it “with a bride about to kiss a-“ she finally found the plaza “a frog…”

In the middle of the plaza, Callum was there, dressed in a traditional Katolis suit for weddings, with Claudia by his side dressed in a white gown, as both of their families and the public watched the ceremony.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here tonight” the traditional Katolis priest read a small book “in this fine celebration to join together” Rayla’s head shook in denial and pain on instinct as she gasped and tried to contain the tears “this prince and this young woman in holy matrimony.” Claudia and Callum smiled at each other, him with a loving look she constantly found him giving to her in the last 2 days. Lorei gasped as she took the scene in

“Oh no… This can’t be right, sweetheart. How are you still a frog? Lujanne said… Rayla?” she wasn’t there anymore

* * *

“Rayla?” Lorei screamed as she entered the public graveyard. The whimpering sound only got louder as she approached two gravestones, which read “Lain” and “Tiadrin”. Rayla was curled up on top of Tiadrin's stone grave. “I know what we saw with our eyes.” Rayla’s eyes watered and full-blown tears fell from her eyes “but… if we just go back that way… we’ll find out our fairy tale came true!”

“Just because ya wish for somethin'… doesn’t make it come true.” She lamented, with her head buried in her knees.

“But Rayla! It’s just like Faith always said-“

“FAITH IS NOTHING BUT A STAR, LOREI! A BIG BALL OF HOT HAIR EXPLODING, MILLIONS OF MILES FROM HERE!” Rayla snapped at her friend “Open your eyes now before you get hurt.” She hopped away leaving Lorei and 'Faith' alone. Lorei had tears in her eyes and she looked to her partner.

“She… she's just speaking with a broken heart, Faith… that’s all!” she wiped the tears away “C’mon Faith! We’re going to find the truth and show her!”

* * *

“If anyone of you objects to the union of these two people,” the Katolis priest said. On the sidelines, Aaravos stood with the cube in his hand, twirling as it glinted. His dark chuckles couldn’t be heard by anyone. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace!”

Inside a small box, some trembling was heard

“ME! ME! I OBJECT!” Callum shouted through the keyhole. In an attempt to break the box, Callum's frog tongue went through the keyhole, which helped him move the box slightly to the side

“Do you, Prince Callum of Katolis, take Claudia to be your wife…” Lorei zipped up to fake Callum’s ear

“Mate? What are you doing?” The 'prince' waved off the insect, which made Aaravos turn his attention to the mischief the frog prince was doing and with a click of fingers, made fake Callum step in his tongue, making the frog groan in pain inside the box

“…as you both shall live?” the Reverend asked directly to the Prince

“Of course I do!” fake Callum was quick to take on his act and smiled at Claudia, who smiled back.

Lorei quickly saw the tongue sticking out of the keyhole and floated down

“Callum? You in there?!” Callum eyed through the keyhole and screamed

“LOREI! GET ME OUT OF THIS BOX!” Lorei didn’t quite understand what he said

“I can’t hear you! I’m getting you out of this box!” entering through the hole, Lorei worked fast as she could to free her friend

“…as long as you both shall live?” the priest asked Claudia

“I do.” She answered happily, like a small child at Christmas.

“And so, by the power invested in me by the counsel of Katolis” Finally Lorei was able to free Callum “I now pronounce you man and…” Callum jumped in fake Callum’s shoulders, dragging him out of the altar by the necklace where he knew all the illusion was held. Aaravos saw that scene, grunting angrily, almost letting his fragile cube fall on the floor. Seeing Callum on the floor, Claudia gasped

“Call! Are you okay?” Fake Callum grabbed the frog in his hands tightly and following Aaravos inside the church just a few meters of the plaza, he skipped inside

“Yes, Claudia! I just need some moments to compose myself!”

Once the door of the church was closed, Aaravos clicked his fingers as Callum tried to grab the necklace around the impostor’s neck. Lorei not missing a beat saw the glowing cube in Aaravos’s hand and whistled signaling what was really important in the situation. Callum was able to escape the grasp with some struggle grabbing Aaravos’ cube before jumping on the nearest window with it and giving it to Lorei. With some struggles, Lorei was able to lift the cube

“LET GO OF THAT!” Aaravos screamed. When he reached the window the firefly was already too far away, so he whistled, his shadow servants immediately going after her.

Villads was having a good time during all the hazard. Hearing stories with his fellow human crew in the middle of the crowds. As he saw the shadows running after just as Lorei past through with a very ominous cube in her hands, he stopped dead in his tracks

“Lorei?” he saw her heading into the cemetery and the shadow friends not far behind.

“Hey, are you coming or what?” One of his friends asked as they noticed his absence. Villads looked him and his other friends in the eye before growling like the gator he is, scaring everyone out of the way

* * *

“Rayla!” Lorei shouted again as she entered the cemetery. Terrified by his tone, she looked up to see her

“Lorei?” she saw her flying through the darkness with the cube.

“This proves what we saw isn’t what we thought we saw!” She shoved the cube in her chest

“What’s this?!”

“It’s primal source magic! The archmage, he’s been using it for the…” they heard wicked cackling on their way and the smoky assassins headed their way through the graves “You can’t let the archmage get this! No matter what! Run!” With the cube in her hands, Rayla jumped off the scene, leaving Lorelei alone. Remembering the shadow assassins' weakness to light, Lorei lit up her bottom and hit every single one of the shadows without a beat. But there was someone she couldn’t defeat.

Aaravos took the moment she turned to take a breath and slapped her into the ground. And without mercy, step on her before walking away as if nothing happened

“Lorei!” Villads exclaimed through the cemetery and gasped as he saw a flickering light on the ground “Lorei?”

* * *

The smoky assassins who survived went after Rayla as she jumped with the cube as fast as she could, upon hitting a dead end and being cornered by the shadows, she followed her instincts

“BACK OFF! OR I AM GOING TO BREAK THIS FRAGILE CUBE INTO A MILLION PIECES!” Hearing her words made Aaravos turn to dark magic again

_“!dnim reh kcirT”_ he said blowing a violet powder into her direction. As soon as Rayla was hit with the powder, she wasn’t a frog and she wasn’t in the cemetery anymore.

She was a human again, dressed in a fancy dress and she was in the perfect deception of her dream restaurant. Looking around, everything was perfect. The sound, the peacefulness, even the smell was how she imagined. She then saw in a corner near a window, a mop of brown chestnut hair painting a picture. She gasped lovingly.

“Callum?” when he turned to refill his paintbrush, she saw it wasn’t him and her smile faltered.

“Now isn’t this a whole lot better than hopping around lily pads for the rest of your life?” Aaravos said as he drank a cup of champagne

“The Archmage…” she whispered and backed off, clutching the cube in her hands as he chuckled wickedly at her

“Got to hand it to you, Rayla.” He set his glass down and got up to tower over her “When you dream, you dream big! Just look at his place! It’s going to be the crown jewel of the city! People will come from everywhere! Duren! Neolandia! Del Bar! Evenere! Katolis…” she gasped at him at the sound of the name of _his_ kingdom. “And all you got to do to make this real is hand over that old cube of mine.” He opened his palm to her. She looked between the place and the cube, before holding it closer to her

“No, this isn’t right!” she backed off again from him

“Come on now, Ray. Think of everything you’ve sacrificed!” he clicked his fingers and a cloud of smoke appeared at her side, with Nyx in it

_“Yeah, yeah, 'gotta save for the restaurant'. Girl, all you ever do is work!”_

“Think about all the times you disappointed your family for overworking yourself!” this time a cloud showed Runaan

_“Rayla, I want you to look clearly at the situation, you’re gonna start overworking yourself for a dream! You should be happy working with us. We are fami- OW!”_

“Think about all the haters who doubted you!” the smoke now showed Mr. Guill and Mr. Guill

_“Exactly! Which is why a little woman of your background would have her hands full trying to run a business like that.”_

Rayla’s mind was racing around but at all, she refused to give in, that is until _they_ were brought up

“And don’t forget your poor parents!” her eyes snapped open as the archmage opened a window curtain, revealing a vision to Rayla’s old home before she moved in with Runaan and Ethari “they were hard-working, indeed. Shifts that sometimes lasted more than 15 hours…” she saw a vision of something she never saw, her parents' tired faces as they got home from work. She was always at her godfathers’ when they arrived late and she would only see them in the morning. “Never letting on how tired they were to not worry their poor daughter.”

_“Mum! Dad!”_ A nine-year-old Rayla jumped into her parents' arms as she saw them after spending one more night at Runaan and Ethari’s house. She heard them laugh and her heart was tearing up, so was her endurance.

“Shame all that hard work didn’t amount more than a dream that was never fulfilled…” the scenes changed for Rayla in the middle of her parents’ laps as they smiled and talked in her room “but you? You can give your parents everything they ever wanted!” she looked down at the cube in her hands and going to the scene in the window. “Come on, Rayla. You’re almost there…” he whispered in her ear as she let down her guard while watching the scene unfold in front of her eyes.

“My parents never did get what they wanted…” She saw her parents laugh with her and hugging her with heat and warm she could feel to this day. “but they had what they needed!” he quickly got her guard up and clenched her palm around the cube as Aaravos trembled “We had love! They never lost sight of what was really important!” she pointed her finger at the archmage’s face and he backed off as she held the cube by a hand that was so firm that could crack the cube by brute force

“Easy with that! Be careful!” he trembled as he walked back

“AND NEITHER WILL I!” she screamed at his face, and swiftly took the cube and tried to smash in on the floor. She didn’t hear it break. Looking down she saw one of the smoky assassins grabbed it just 2 inches off the floor. Chuckling darkly, they handed to Aaravos, who took it and his evil Cheshire grin appeared again as he laughed maniacally. With the click of his fingers, the restaurant was gone and Rayla turned back into a frog. Aaravos stepped on her, just enough to trap her under him

“You should have taken my deal, Rayla! Now you’re going to spend the rest of your life being a slimy, little frog!” he leaned down to look on her face, his cube in his hand. Again she followed her instincts

“Let me tell ya somethin’ Archmage!” she smiled mischievously at him “It’s not slime! It’s mucus!” she sends her tongue to his cube as he chuckled maniacally. Before he could do something, she pushed his foot off her stomach and smashed the cube into pieces.

As soon as she did, thousands of lights flew from it hitting him in the face, revealing a purple-blue hue with stars behind his perfectly normal skin as he tried to pick up the pieces.

“NO! NO!” Taking that as her cue to leave, Rayla hid behind a gravestone “How am I ever paying my debt?!”

The smoky assassins who were once by his side fused together in a much larger who towered over him

_“?ydaer uoy erA”_ the shadows said and Rayla could swear they smiled

“No! Not really! In fact, I got more plans! Please!” He screamed as the shadows surrounded him

_“!?ydaer uoy erA”_ They repeated and now it was obvious their smile now

“This is just a minor setback! Please!” Aaravos backed off and hit his back into a grave “As soon as I find another soul, I promise I’ll pay you back! I still got the frog prince locked away!” Rayla’s eyes widened “I just need a little more time!” The smoke only grew and surrounded him completely to a point Rayla couldn’t see him anymore “JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME!” he screamed through the shadows in a voice full of pain “I PROMISE I’LL PAY BACK! I PROMISE!” she couldn’t see him, but she heard his pained scream just before the smoke disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a grave with his fearful expression and a name: “Aaravos” and she vaguely heard a small “shush” in the air before the silence settled in the quiet cemetery. The silence didn’t last. As Rayla tried to catch her breath she heard the bell of the church sounding and a rumble of thunder rumbling in the distance, as the dark clouds started to appear in the sky

* * *

“Call! Callum!” Claudia banged in the door of the church loudly. Claudia was getting positively angry and those who knew her knew that was not a side that you should mess with. “I’m getting in, whether you like it or not!” even though she was wearing a bridal gown and hells, she kicked open the door, not finding Callum but some blue moths were hovering over Callum’s moonstone necklace. “Where did you-“

“Clauds! Please, down here!” a voice said, making her look down to a frog who was climbing on to the table a few meters in front of her “It’s me! Callum-“ he didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as Claudia grabbed the nearest bible and hit him with it. Claudia then gasped

“Call?”

* * *

Rayla jumped quickly as she could to the plaza and saw the royal family of Katolis having a conversation on the altar that was empty with Lord Viren. Not far on the steps to the door of the church, Claudia was sitting with Callum on her side

“God! This is so much to absorb!” Claudia gasped as Callum averted his gaze to her and to the clock who said it was missing only three minutes before it was midnight of the last day. “Let me see if I got this right! If I kiss you before midnight, you and Rayla will turn human again? And then we get married, right? No offense Call but my dad is really set in this and-”

“No, no I get it! I understand! It's alright.” He tried to suppress a sad smile but wasn’t successful

“Ok! Then our dreams come true!” she said not noticing his expression

“More or less… But remember, Clauds, you need to help Rayla with all she needs for her restaurant.” Rayla stopped on her tracks a few feet behind them and hid herself behind a pillar of the church “Because Rayla…” he looked up to the sky and even though the clouds were everywhere and the Evening star would be hidden behind them, she was clear through a hole in the clouded sky, as if she wanted to see what was going to happen. Callum sighed lovingly and remembered Lorei’s words in the night she talked about Faith “…she's my ray of moonlight.” He put a hand on his heart and smiled at the sky. Rayla’s smile opened as she looked at him and she felt her insides mix up like a thousand butterflies

“Alrighty then! Come here” Claudia took him in his hands and with the deadest stare, he simply pouted his lips in preparation.

“Wait!” Rayla’s voice sounded as she unhid herself, Callum gasped and he looked behind him

“Rayla?” his eyes widened and he jumped off Claudia’s hands

“Rayla?” Claudia’s brow quirked up as she took the sight of her friend jumping in their direction

“Don’t do this.” She begged as she approached Callum

“I have to do this! And we’re running out of time, Rayla!” he motioned to the clock as he tried to jump to go back to Claudia but Rayla grabbed his arm

“I won’t let ya!” she said holding the tears back. He took both of her hands between his

“It’s the only way to get you to your dream.” he released her hands and turned back sadly. If Rayla discovered something during this journey is that when she followed her instincts, she was able to turn the tide like she never did, so she let her heart speak

“My dream? My dream wouldn’t be complete…” she took a deep breath “…without you in it!” The prince stopped in his tracks and looked at her with a big smile “I love ya, Callum.”

Slowly they both got up and held their hands together

“Warts and all?” he asked her

“Warts and all.” They put their foreheads together and closed their eyes. Some small sniffling could be heard

“Wow…” Claudia wiped her tears of joy on her sleeves “All my life, I read about true love and fairy tales,” she shrugged her shoulders and joined her hands together “And Ray, Call, you guys found it! I couldn’t be more glad about that!” They looked up to her with smiles on their faces “I’m not about to ruin this just to please my dad! You don’t need to marry me Call, but let me at least put your lives back together!” She extended her palm for Callum jump into. A few inches separated both of them, but time didn’t stop at all, even though the last few minutes felt like hours

The clock struck its usual midnight bell as Claudia and Callum were about to kiss. She looked at the clock hesitantly

“M-Maybe it’s a little fast today!” she kissed him, but nothing happened. She continues to give him more and more but it was in vain. Claudia groaned in disbelief and pain “I am so sorry…” she put Callum besides Rayla. Even though they were supposed to be sad about their lost human lives, they smiled at each other. They were together after all.

“RAYLA! CALLUM!” they heard Villads voice coming from the direction of the cemetery, there was pain and sadness in it. Callum and Rayla hopped in his direction, he was holding something in his hands

“Villads? What is it?!” Callum asked as he and Rayla stopped in front of the reptile

“The archmage… he hurt Lorei.” Villads laid what was in his hands in front of the pair. They gasped.

“Lorei!” Rayla said as she examined her. The flickering light was a bad sign.

Putting the firefly in a small leaf, she finally opened her eyes to look at them and with a smile on her face she gasped as friends felt their hearts shatter

“Hey girl…” she coughed badly as she looked at Rayla and Callum “how are you two still…”

“We’re stayin’ frogs, Lorei.” Rayla grabbed Callum’s hand and gazed at him lovingly

“And we’re staying together.” Callum finished for her

“That’s amazing…” she coughed again in pain and swallowed hardly her next words “I like that…” she stopped looking at them and looked up to the sky. Faith was still up there, showing in the middle of the hole in the clouded sky “…and Faith…” her eyes were glinting with the sight of her “…liked that too.” She smiled up and closed her eyes peacefully. Villads eyes teared up as one single tear fell down his scaled face. Callum and Rayla hugged each other tightly, with Rayla whimpering loudly as the flickering light died completely. The dark clouds closed the hole where Faith was and they started to pour during the night as the friends mourned the loss of a great and amazing friend.

* * *

A funeral was set on the river. Hundreds of fireflies appeared to mourn their loss and more seemed to gather as they went down the same river they met Lorei, Callum and Rayla holding both _Calla Lily_ flowers as they ride on the back of Villads in the water. Some fireflies held a leaf which contained Lorei’s body

As they reached a certain point behind the fog, the fireflies set the leaf on the water, floating it. Callum and Rayla both put their flowers in it and hugged each other as the fireflies gently pushed the leaf in the direction where the river flow, letting it go into the fog forever. Callum wiped Rayla's tears as she did the same for him.

Suddenly a bright light made everyone’s attention snap into its direction. Rayla’s tears ceased and Callum’s mouth gaped. Villads looked up to see too while wiping his own tears. Everyone gasped in one unique voice. The sky was becoming more clear so they could see Faith, for the first time since Lorei’s death, but this time, she wasn’t alone. A smaller star was beside her and they all gasped aloud with smiles on their faces. Everyone cheered, Callum and Rayla hugging each other tightly. Upon seeing the two soulmates together in the sky, they looked at each other softly and nodded

* * *

It was Lujanne’s garden. Hundreds of fireflies helped to illuminate the place, of course, Lujanne put some magic in it, but that wasn’t the point. Animals from the entire forest were watching the ceremony. A wedding.

In the middle of everyone, with Lujanne and Phoe-Phoe side by side, she was looking down at the two frogs. Rayla was wearing a few white flowers on her head and she had small jasmine in her hand as her “bouquet”. Callum had a small white moth at his chest, imitating a bow. They were holding hands for everyone to see.

“And so by the power vested in me by… well, me!” Lujanne chuckled “I now pronounce you two” they looked at each other fondly “Frog and Wife! Get to it, Prince! Give your lovely bride a kiss!” she waved her hand at them.

Callum and Rayla looked at each other. Callum’s “bow” went flying muttering congratulations for both of them. Rayla hid her face bashfully but when Callum grabbed her by the face, she went straight to it, closing the distance between them. It was true. They were happy. Maybe they were never to get what they wanted, but they were what they both needed for each other. And that was enough.

Trapped in their kiss, Callum and Rayla didn’t notice spark that was created as soon as they kissed. A glow emanating from both of them, as the lights bent towards them and involved them as they both floated up and everyone watched it. Lujanne couldn’t help but chuckle in delight as the scene unfolded in front of her.

All the expectations covered their eyes upon the blinding light that was being originated from the couple. With one final blinding light, the sphere of magic that involved them dissolved, leaving not two frogs, but two humans. Everyone gasped with smiles on their faces and Villads wiped his tears.

Soon as the kissing daze was done, Rayla and Callum looked at each other shortly after separating their lips. They gasped. Rayla touched the white and dark green gown with purple and white flowers on her white hair and Callum took notice of his suit who matched Rayla’s.

“Like I told you! Kissing a princess breaks the spell!” Lujanne says

“Once you became my wife, that made you…” Callum looked at Rayla who smiled back at him

“A princess!” She pulled him by the tie so they could be closer “Ya just kissed yourself a princess!” she winked at him. Callum took her chin between his thumb and his index and pulled her face closer

“And I’m about to do it again.” They crashed their lips together as Callum carried Rayla Bried style and spun her around as everyone cheered

The scene faded to show both of them in the church of the city, officializing the wedding. Rayla was set on the floor and waved a hand to Ethari and Runaan in the audience as they clapped and Rayla swore she saw a tear in Runnan’s left eye. Claudia and Soren were clapping loudly and excitedly

Rayla then bowed into the direction of the Royal family and they all returned with a big smile, with Amaya putting a thumbs up for her nephew.

As the doves flew, Callum and Rayla were showered with rice from the guests and got on the royal carriage as Rayla threw her bouquet of jasmines to her guests, landing in General Amaya’s hands as she talked to General Janai. She didn’t miss the beat and wiggled her eyebrows at the other woman, who blushed heavily at her antics.

On the carriage, Rayla and Callum smiled at each other and shared another kiss. They would have a lot to worry about the future, but for now, this was what they needed.

* * *

“Love?” Rayla says as she enters the former-old building that was bought by the two of them. The moon high on the sky, a clear sky letting the stars shine on it “I’ve got a letter from Villads! Didn’t know he could write but alright” she shrugs her shoulders and continues reading down the paper on her hands “He’s been lernin’ so much from his crew on the high seas! I’ve still got to thank him for the help when we bought this place” she smiled at the memory. To this day it was hard for her to believe all these adventures happened a year ago. And now both her and Callum were only a week away from the official opening of the “Moon & Stars’ Palace” restaurant

She heard some rustling coming from the stage at the end of the main hall. She saw Callum quickly cover the wall of the stage. He said to her a week ago it was a gift. An artistic gift. He sighed and ran to her, hugging her.

“Am I finally allowed to see your ‘gift’ now?” she says smiling and Callum chuckles. She puts a hand on his cheek and wipes out a blob of golden paint

“Well, I do need constructive criticism…”

“Well, you know that whatever you do, I always find it gorgeous, so I think you’re not getting much of that from me.” She gives him a quick peck on his lips

“True, but you’re the only one who can say if it’s actually good.” He runs up to the stage and pulls the white sheet.

Rayla gasps.

It was a whole mural dedicated to the adventures they lived together while frogs, with the logo of the Restaurant on the top middle. But the middle had one of the most beautiful things she ever saw.

It was a painting of two women who were touching foreheads and looking deeply into each other eyes with loving grins. One of them had dark skin with freckles, antlers with flowers decorating it, long green hair with streaks of gold and she was using a dress with forest colors and golden entails and a beautiful corset with the same palette of colors.

The other one had a dark violet skin with stars in it, looking like a beautiful starry night. Her long white hair seemed to glow and it was decorated with a pair of dark and long horns, she was wearing a long dress with the dark sky in it and some hints of silver and gold and the fabric had a gradient of a light beige to her sleeves as if the sun was setting on the dress. Above their painting, two stars.

“I hope I did justice.” he said as he helped his wife climb the stage. “Do you think they would have liked it?” he squeezes her hand, subtly caressing the golden ring on her finger. Rayla squeezes back and pulls him to a tender kiss

“I think they would have loved it.” She answers hugging him and relaxing his arms. He sighed and smiled, burying his face in her hair.

Together they look at the painting and direct their looks to the skylight above the hall as the two stars glinted in the sky in harmony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it is done! Wow, this was a ride! I want to thank you all for such kind comments I received, this was my first piece of fanfiction I wrote here and for this fandom, which makes it really special. I tried to reply to everyone who commented until now, can't promise I'll do the same, but just you know, all of you have a special place in my little heart <3  
> A quick warning: If you ever make fanart of this story or something related, maybe your own version of this AU I created, you can send me the link to my [Tumblr account!](https://artfulstar.tumblr.com/) I will make sure to add a link here in these notes once I see it! 
> 
> Again, thank you so much for reading this! And I'll see you in the future! Bye-bye!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning on slicing this on 3 parts, the last one being the biggest one (yes I know the first chapter over 5k words but bear with me)
> 
> As I said, any feedback is appreciated! Maybe the next part will go out on my birthday (January 3rd) as a gift so stay tuned!


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